Taylor disappointed in way IABA dealt with cancellation of European event

Outside the ring Katie Taylor’s world is a remove from boxing and this past week you could understand why.

Following hard on the heels of the loudly-trumpeted Elite National Championships being hastily moved from City West to the National Stadium to the recent cancellation of the international against Poland and the postponement by diktat of this year’s women’s European Championships – all done with absolutely no explanation – Taylor is quietly looking into a year where just the European Union Championships in June are her lone goal.

That her European Championships have been moved to 2014 is of little comfort to her in the year after her London Olympic gold.

The World Championships are on next year too and in 2016 the prospect of the European and World Championship as well as the Olympic Games being run in one year followed by a year of nothing significant should send alarm bells ringing. Not in boxing.

“I was very disappointed the way I was told about it [European Championship cancellation] and treated by the association these last few weeks. I feel I should have been the first to hear about it,” said the European, World and Olympic champion.

“To be told by a journalist that they were cancelled, I felt hard done by. I’d been training for the European Championships these past few months.”

And there’s more. That Olympic silver and bronze medallists John Joe Nevin and Paddy Barnes didn’t take part in the Elite finals just months after London was unfortunate too. Both had good reasons to skip the domestic competition but Barnes appearing on television in Carl Frampton’s corner at his European bout in the week he should have been competing didn’t look great.

No explanation

The Polish vice-president Mustapha Kocinoglu was in attendance at the Elite finals last weekend too but neglected to explain why Poland would not be fulfilling the international fixture this weekend. That might also have been seen as boorish at best.

Earlier this week Taylor was sanguine about the future. Having won the last four EU championships her goal is to keep her records intact and continue to evolve.

Standing still, as she may have discussed during an Adidas photo shoot with Irish rugby player Brian O’Driscoll, is not an option.

“There is so much I have to improve on,” she says. “At the moment we’re working a lot on power and speed and my leg strength as well. Just little small things. If you improve on one small thing that makes a huge difference in those really big fights.

“It’s important to always reinvent yourself for every competition. You stay so consistent across the years but people have videos of you boxing and in every competition you try to bring something new. It’s important to stay one step ahead all the time.”

Four-time winner

A four-time winner of the EU Championships, she will not meet two of the Olympic fighters she defeated in London last summer, Mavzuna Chorieva or Sofya Ochigava, as the Hungarian event is confined to the 27 European Union countries. But Taylor could meet Britain’s Natasha Jonas, the first of her lightweight Olympic wins.

“She will be there. It would be a great fight,” said Taylor. “We were trying to get her over here for one of the fights but it just didn’t happen. It would be great to meet her again but there are plenty of girls there aside from Jonas too . . . it’s great to have that gold medal but I am not sitting back now. I have a lot to work on and I feel I have a lot to give still.”

For a sport in dire need of promotion Taylor is a rare gift that has landed in its lap, yet the local and international associations knock her. She will thrive at the EU Championships because her career has largely been alone.

Barnes and Nevin, if selected, and Michael Conlan have their summer European Championships in Belarus as scheduled. Given recent events and the thriving discourtesies in boxing those championships could become a significant test for the sport in Ireland.